Greenough Blog

When a new intern walks through the door here at Greenough, the initial message is always the same: we want this to be a successful internship, both for you and for us.

How do we measure success? That’s a crucial question that we’re constantly asking ourselves. Sometimes the answer is as straight-forward as tallying media hits over the course of a month. But often, measuring success is not quite as objective, and measuring the success of an internship tends to fall in that less-objective category.

For our interns, what’s most important is that they come away from a summer or semester here with a more thorough understanding of the marketing and public relations field than what they had upon arrival. Such an understanding can't come from fetching coffee for the boss or making photo copies all day. It comes from deep immersion in the day-to-day heartbeat of the company. It comes from doing hands-on work that adds value to our full-time staff and our clients. It comes from being considered a member of the Greenough team, even if it's just for a few weeks or months.

And here’s the truth: sometimes a more thorough understanding leads an intern to conclude that a certain industry or field is simply not for them. And that’s OK. Sure, we’d love to see every intern embrace the idea of pursuing a PR career following a stint at Greenough, but our internship program is focused on career development. If an intern finds that PR is not right for them, and that conclusion is the result of hands-on, constructive and valuable work, we consider that a success. Interns might not realize it in the moment, but that’s most definitely a form of career development: they sharpened key skills, made some professional contacts and added a compelling element to their resume.

Even better is when we see interns truly enthused about continuing down the PR career path because of what they absorbed through their work and one-on-one mentoring from our seasoned professionals. Perhaps a job in PR will be traced back to connections made during the internship. Perhaps that job will come at Greenough itself; of the nearly two dozen employees on staff right now, three of them are recent interns, and one was promoted earlier this year.

One successful internship can look quite a bit different from another. But we value the opportunity to help the next wave of ambitious professionals take steps in their career development. If we do that, we call it success.

Which brings us to this point: we’re at that time of year when last summer is hard to find in the rear-view mirror yet next summer is still agonizingly far away. But summer does come quick, and we’re on the lookout for energetic interns for the summer of 2016 (that being said, we love having interns during the spring and fall semesters as well).

If you’re a college student eager to explore the public relations industry, or you know a college student in that category, we invite you to reach out. Send your resume and a cover letter telling us why you’re a great candidate to Brian Lowe at blowe@greenough.biz. A successful internship could be on the horizon.